The government could have achieved more if the funds allocated for Covid19 relief and related initiatives had been better managed.
That’s according to Auditor-General, Tsakani Maluleke, who reported “significant deficiencies in the procurement and contract management processes of the relief package government redirected in response to the covid-19 pandemic.
Despite this, she applauded the government’s ongoing efforts in fighting the pandemic.
Releasing the national audit office’s second real-time audit report on government’s covid-19 expenditure on Wednesday, Maluleke acknowledged that government had to react quickly and decisively in response to the pandemic and in an already compromised control environment.
However, she believed the country “could have achieved more if the funds and related initiatives had been managed better”.
The Auditor-General described the second report as “an opportunity to learn from what played out and use it to strengthen government’s service offerings to the citizens of the country in the longer run”.
She also noted that in the first Covid19 report, released in September, the Auditor-General lamented the weak government control environment in which the relief funds had landed.
But, Maluleke said the government’s response to her office’s first special report was very positive and said it was “commendable that most accounting officers and executive authorities took action to address the findings, implement the recommendations and, in some cases, even took disciplinary steps”.
However, she recognised that some of the fixes would take time to address the underlying root causes of what we reported on.
The AG’s latest report includes an update on the expenditure of the relief funds and the actions taken in response to the first special report, covering these key areas:
